[-empyre-] Introducing Jeff, Naomi and Jeremy on "Locative City"

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

Prelude September: 




" When experiencing narrative elements onsite, the site itself provides a
framework, with the senses providing active as well as subconscious
associations. The mind can then incorporate these cues in formulating a
rich, complex, and meaningful experience.

Do we still need myths today, when we are no longer baffled by the physical
phenomena that surround us? It is important to remember that besides its
connective and educational function, myth ­ and narrative ­ provide an
emotional connection to our environment. Fear, bewilderment, alienation and
curiosity were driving impulses behind the creation of myths as much as was
the need to interpret and share experience. Our global climate today ­
political, economic, environmental, and social ­ continue to elicit fear,
bewilderment, and uncertainty. Mythology for us today functions primarily as
metaphor. We no longer believe in the stories ascribed to physical
phenomena. In part what we are attempting to do is reintroduce the literal
aspect ­ the very real sources of human experience ­ back into myth and
narrative."



 --Naomi Spellman, writing from Huddersfield (8.11.04) on
http://project_diary.blogspot.com/




More about the artist guests this month on -empyre-


--naomi spellman

Naomi Spellman is a transmedia artist and educator. Exhibited work
includes locative media, networked narrative, video, interactive
computer-based works, photography, and graphic prints. Her work has
been exhibited nationally and abroad. Venues have included Futuresonic
<4>, the LA Freewaves Festival, the Art in Motion Festival, ASCII
Digital 2000, The Harvard Map Collection, and the DART IV symposium on
digital arts and culture. She teaches computing arts in the
Interdisciplinary Computing Arts Program at the University of
California, San Diego. Previously she has taught at the Evergreen
State College in Olympia, Washington; the University of California,
Los Angeles; and Parsons School of Design in New York. Naomi is
currently Artist in Residence at the Media Center in Huddersfield,
U.K. Together with artistic collaborator Jeff Knowlton she is
developing an interpretive engine, which uses wireless internet access
to generate a mythologic tale based on the place where it is
experienced. Immediate factors such as user profile, stock market
info, seismic data, weather conditions, live news feed, and local
historic information help shape this narrative of place and time. The
interest lies in the emotional connections between data, place, and
time. The work will debut this fall at Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art
and the City, a three-day event (OCT 1-3, 2004) in Lower Manhattan.
http://www.spectropolis.info/


--jeff knowlton

Jeff Knowlton is a transmedia artist based in Los Angeles. His work with
information in virtual space began with ?a text for the navigational age?,
shown at VRML Art 2000 and Siggraph2000. More recently his collaborative
work with Jeremy Hight and Naomi Spellman, locating information in the
physical world, has been seen at Futuresonic 4, La Freewaves and Art in
Motion. ?34 North 118 West?, a location based narrative, received the
grand prize at Art in Motion.

Currently Mr. Knowlton is a resident artist at the Digital Research Unit
in Huddersfield UK. He is collaborating with Naomi Spellman developing ?an
interpretive engine for various places on the earth?, that will will be
shown in Manhattan at Spectropolis in October 2004.

In 1990, he was the recipient of a New Forms Initiative Grant funded by
the NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation. Jeff Knowlton graduated from
CalArts with a BFA in Fine Art (95) and an MFA in both Critical Studies
and Fine Art (99). Mr Knowlton teaches at UC San Diego and has competed
projects for clients such as Mattel and The Centre for Global Dialogue in
Reuschlikon Switzerland.


--jeremy hight

Jeremy Hight is a new media artist/writer/theorist. Jeremy Hight graduated
from Cal Arts with an MFA in critical studies (98).He teaches Visual
Communication and Multimedia at Los Angeles Mission College. He recently
presented at the Trace Symposium on Experimental Writing and the Internet at
Nottingham Trent University.  His presentation "Narrative Archaeology and
the new Narrativology discussed how locative media can allow artists access
to the resonance of the unseen layers of information within city spaces, to
be able to "read" a space with gps or wireless triggering history,
archaeology, architecture, ethnography, metaphor, time and narratives of
moments and place.   The paper was also recently presented at the University
of Iowa conference sponsored by the Department of English et al,
Craft/Critique/Culture. His work has been in the Futuresonic Festival, La
Freewaves, Art in Motion, Timeforms and Mediatopia.  His collaboration with
Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman entitled "34 north 118 west"( gps data and
interactive map utilized in a physical place triggers layered data as one
moves) won the grand jury
prize at the art in motion festival in 2003.  He collaborated on the
experimental animation "Hike Hike Hike" which has shown been shown in many
festivals including Sundance and won "best independant animation" at the New
England film festival.